Why Would Teyrn Loghain Charge?
by Sarah1281
Summary: Against Loghain's better judgement, he charges at Ostagar and gets himself killed and the army decimated. In the aftermath at Flemeth's, Alistiar is left wondering why Loghain would do such a horrendous thing. Do or don't, it seems Loghain just can't win.


Why Would Teyrn Loghain Charge?

Disclaimer: I do not own Dragon Age.

Note: The idea for this one-shot came from Arsinoe de Blassenville's list of Plot Mabari Puppies number fourteen: 'Loghain charges against his better judgment. The army of Ferelden is destroyed, and nearly the entire noble and officer classes.' Please note that I'm not making any sort of claim about what would have really happened if Loghain had charged, I just find the idea of Alistair all indignant over him actually charging endlessly amusing.

Alistair stood outside of Morrigan's mother's hut staring blankly in front of him. Everything had all gone so _wrong_. He had been at Ostagar for the past few weeks while Duncan had been off trying to bolster the ranks of the Grey Wardens since a Blight was on the horizon (and having some really bad luck as only one of the seven candidates he'd tried to recruit hadn't gotten themselves killed before they could be conscripted).

King Cailan had just been so _sure_ that he had almost beaten the darkspawn. He had faced the darkspawn in combat three times before Duncan had returned and each victory had been grander than the last. Just one more victory should have been enough to route them permanently and then, even if the Blight couldn't be ended because the Archdemon wasn't there, Ferelden and the Wardens would be able to have time to better prepare for the eventual appearance of the Archdemon. That hadn't happened, however.

It was worth mentioning that Alistair had been suspicious of the Teyrn Loghain ever since he had first met the man. The general of the entire Ferelden army was willing to be called out of his tent on the eve of battle to meet with a pair of non-entities? Clearly, this meant that he was actually expecting to rendezvous with some shady characters as he was up to something. And then he had vaguely threatened them when Caunira had called Cailan an idiot. And THEN he had told them that if Cailan didn't listen to him – or 'reason' as he called it – then they should just give up and start praying then. Loghain showed all the classic signs of being evil and about to betray the king! Oh, if only…

Alistair's attention was briefly drawn to the fact that Caunira had finally come out of her coma and stumbled outside. It was, he noted, a bit ridiculous that he had been trying to figure out what Morrigan's mother's name was for three weeks now and Caunira barely had to glance her way before she introduced herself as Flemeth. Maybe Flemeth felt more of a kinship with her fellow mage than with the almost templar?

"So you're saying that when Loghain charged, the darkspawn overwhelmed him and decimated his army as well as killing him?" Caunira asked, horrified.

"Why would Loghain do this?" Alistair demanded. "You told me that he didn't seem content with the battle plan and kept asking the king to call for reinforcements and then he goes ahead and ignores his reservations and gets his army slaughtered _anyway_?"

"Well, what was he supposed to do?" Caunira asked reasonably. "His king ordered him to charge when the beacon was lit, we lit the beacon, and he charged."

"It didn't do any good," Alistair pointed out sullenly. "King Cailan and the other Wardens all died anyway and Loghain's charge only made the massacre take longer."

"He couldn't have known that that would be the result when he charged," Caunira reasoned. "Otherwise he would have tried to come up with another plan."

"I guess that goes to show what kind of a general he was," Alistair muttered. "It's great that he was able to be all noble and charge but Duncan and Cailan still died. We still lost. The only difference is that now we don't have anything to stand in the way of the darkspawn horde since Loghain fed his army to them." He shook his head. "You know, with their only being two of us Wardens left I already would have thought that this was an impossible situation but now we're supposed to try and stop a Blight – which it's always taken years and multiple countries allying to do – without even an army?"

Caunira looked uncertain as to what to say. "I'm sure that he did what he thought was right and died in the service of his king trying to protect the land that he loved so much," she said finally, feeling a little lame as she did so.

"And now because of him, Duncan and Cailan died in vain. Because of him, Ferelden will probably fall to the darkspawn. Because of him, who knows what will happen?" Alistair asked angrily. He shouldn't fault the man for just doing his job but, by the Maker, this wasn't just some common foot soldier! This was the most celebrated hero Ferelden had! He wasn't just supposed to rush blindly to his doom and allow any chance Ferelden had had to fall along with his men! If the battle couldn't be won then he was supposed to know that and he was supposed to do something – anything – else so that it wouldn't be two Wardens and a handful of unorganized deserters against an entire Blight. "I mean, Arl Eamon's forces weren't at the battle but most of the other nobles and officers were and they're almost certainly all dead. I had heard something about Orlais being called upon for aid but who knows how many they were supposed to send and if they'll even be willing to help after we've proven how incompetent we are against the darkspawn."

"We can still try to pull our own weight," Caunira suggested. "Duncan gave you those treaties to hold onto, right? We can try and get the mages, and the Dalish, and the dwarves to fight with us."

"I don't know why they'd be any more eager to help than the Orlesians would since the darkspawn have proven this powerful and, for now, it's more our problem than theirs," Alistair said pessimistically. "Still…I can't just sit back and do nothing while Ferelden falls to the darkspawn. I _can't_. There's only two of us so we can't do much but if we call upon these treaties maybe…maybe Loghain's mistake won't end up getting us all killed, after all."

Flemeth chuckled, reminding them of her presence. "Oh, the irony…"

Caunira blinked. "Pardon?"

"Oh, don't mind me," Flemeth said airily. "I was just reflecting on how men's hearts hold shadows darker than any tainted creature."

Why had Loghain done it?

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